Thank God I was born an American. FOR. REAL. To all you haters, what would you be doing in Zimbabwe right now?

This holiday season I am certainly thankful for my faith, my family, my kids, my wife, my friends and so much more. But it’s the little things I wanna list that I need to give some shouts out to:

– the ability to avoid Black Friday shopping and do 99% of my shopping online– my iPhone– Foo Fighters– the fact they are building a ChickFiLa less than a mile from my house– the Astros moving to the American League in 2013– Phineas and Ferb– Charlie (our new boxer) and his big ears, long legs and wrinkled face– Stryper’s “Winter Wonderland”– the price of gold– Wireless service on certain airlines– Angry Birds and Words WF– The “Occupy” protestors (pure entertainment)– Mazzio’s Pizza

Surely this isn’t an exhaustive list, but you get the idea. Life is good. Real good. I’m just thankful each day I get a chance to run the clock another 24 hours.

No doubt about it. The Rangers blew it in the 2011 World Series. If our pitching would have been just 20% better we win that series in 5 games. Then the gut wrencher in game 6. Ugh. I’m still ticked. Most teams would never recover.

But our Rangers will.

Two other teams have gone to back-to-back World Series and lost them only to eventually win a world championship – the Dodgers and the Braves. Both created legacies of winning and baseball fans now give them their respect.

The Rangers are in the process of doing the same and here’s why we should all be excited about the future.

– All key players will return– West division opponents are getting older and not better– Experience has been gained like no other– Executives like Nolan and Daniels – enough said– Coach Washington – again enough said– Players are very young– Farm system is ranked near the top in all positions– BIG MONEY is coming in 2014 with FSSW contract which means Nolan can spend big now and he will– Fan base is very strong– God is a Rangers fan

Essentially, we probably got to the World Series a year or two too early. That being said, we had lots of intense, stressful but fun baseball in all of October. Most other fans didn’t!

I’m still in shock by how it all came crashing down. But, hearing all of the above over the radio this week made me feel a ton better. We are building a winning franchise. A team that will likely be in the playoffs many more times and will certainly have a chance to get the ring we gave away in 2011.